– 2
– 9
The Chicago Blackhawks were just absolutely embarrassed by the Los Angeles Kings tonight. The Hawks ended up losing 9-2 to LA, dropping both games of a home-and-home series to the worst team in the Western Conference.
I won’t bother going into the details of every goal, because it’s not important, but here’s the breakdown of the important details from this one:
- The Hawks were up 2-1 midway through the 1st period on goals from Patrick Sharp and Martin Lapointe, before LA would proceed to score 8 unanswered goals in the next 50 minutes or so remaining in the game.
- Quite possibly the biggest story in this one was the injury to Jonathan Toews. Toews was checked into the boards in the LA zone in the 1st period and hobbled off, clearly with some sort of a leg issue. He would head to the locker room, and eventually it was announced that he had a sprained knee. On the broadcast, they said that Toews wanted to return but trainer Mike Gapski told him that he could injure himself further if he did. Good thing he didn’t return, as it just wouldn’t have been worth it. If he is out for an extended amount of time, kiss the Hawks’ playoff chances goodbye.
- I really don’t know why Magnus Johansson, Danny Richmond or Andrei Zyuzin are playing in the NHL. They were brutal tonight.
- Furthermore on Johansson, I think he might be the worst Hawks defenseman I have ever seen. Yes, worse than Adrian Aucoin, Jassen Cullimore, Alexander Karpovtsev or Boris Mironov. He is just an embarrassment to the Indianhead. Very rarely do you see a player so scared of contact that he just skates away when an opposing player comes near him, but that is Johansson in a nutshell. I cannot wait until he is off this team’s roster for good.
- Dustin Byfuglien was horrible tonight. Some nights he has looked superb, and other nights — like tonight — he looks like he still belongs in the AHL.
- I really don’t see the use of Adam Burish right now. Tonight, all he did was throw cheap shots around a little bit before eventually getting tossed in the 3rd period. He is not intimidating to anyone and isn’t someone who can fight much. Oh, and he also has zero goals in 38 games.
- This team is sinking fast defensively without Brent Sopel and James Wisniewski.
- If ever there was a time for Dale Tallon to make a deal for a defenseman, this is it. As I mentioned, Zyuzin/Richmond/Johansson are not NHL caliber players, and they were exposed in a huge way tonight.
- SCH Hawks Player Of The Game? Ummm…Patrick Sharp, I guess, who picked up his 20th goal of the year./